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Today's
Stories
October 25,
2004
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
October 25, 2004
Pot Shots
Oregon
Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
By
FRED GARDNER
Phil Leveque of Molalla, Oregon, is
the first doctor in any of the states that have legalized marijuana
for medical use to lose his license for recommending it. Leveque
received a formal notice of revocation from the Board of Medical
Examiners Oct. 20. He has 30 days to appeal, and will.
The Board's action came as
Oregonians prepare to vote on an initiative to legalize cannabis
dispensaries and increase the amount patients can grow and possess.
Leveque, for those of you just
joining us, is the Tod Mikuriya of Oregon. Mikuriya, 71, is a
Berkeley-based psychiatrist who helped draft California's medical
marijuana initiative in 1996 and then, after the voters enacted
it, made himself available to a flood of patients who were afraid
to discuss their cannabis use with their regular doctors, or
whose doctors had turned down their requests for approval.
Mikuriya was singled out for
scrutiny by the state Attorney General's office. He was investigated
by the Medical Board and ultimately found to be violating the
standard of care by not conducting physicals, keeping inadequate
records, and issuing forms stating that patients were under his
care when he was not their primary-care provider. Mikuriya was
placed on five years' probation, during which time his practice
must be monitored by a colleague, and order to pay a $75,000
fine.
None of the complaints against
Mikuriya had come from a patient or a patient's loved one -they
all came from law enforcement agents. Nor did any of the complaints
allege that a patient had been harmed by Mikuriya's approval
of their cannabis use.
Leveque, 81, is a doctor of
osteopathy with a PhD in pharmacology, which he spent most of
his career teaching at the medical-school level. He was a prominent
supporter of Oregon's 1998 medical marijuana initiative, and
when it passed he became the doctor of last resort for thousands
of patients. He was investigated by the Board of Medical Examiners
and his license was suspended for three months, May-July 2002,
for failure to conduct physical exams and keep adequate records.
When he resumed practice it was in concert with a nurse practitioner
authorized to conduct physical exams, and clinic operators committed
to thorough record keeping. By the spring of 2003 some 6,500
Oregonians had gotten medical marijuana cards through the state
program, and more than half of them had submitted applications
signed by Leveque, who assumed that his problems with the Board
were in the past.
In March of this year Leveque's
license was suspended, based on complaints that he had violated
the standard of care in his treatment of six patients. None of
the patients had complained, and no allegations of harm were
made on their behalf. All but one of the complaints came from
other doctors objecting to Leveque's role in helping their patients
obtain cannabis. (This is the most notable difference between
Leveque's martyrdom and Mikuriya's.) At a hearing in May before
the Board's administrative law judge, Leveque's lawyers called
Rick Bayer, M.D. as an expert witness. Bayer's defense of Leveque's
decision to approve cannabis use, patient by patient, exposed
the Board's bias eloquently and succinctly. Too bad the fix was
in.
Patient A was most problematic--a
woman employed by a state agency who sometimes drove heavy equipment.
Leveque, according to his accusers, "signed a form attesting
to the employer that she could safely function on the job while
under the influence of marijuana." But, Bayer pointed out,
"The BME admits Dr. Leveque told her not to smoke marijuana
within four hours of going to work Dr. Leveque was following
a standard that any doctor might follow who reads certain references."
Bayer went on to cite a few to the effect that cannabinoid levels
returned to baseline within four hours after smoking.
Patient B was described by
the Board as having "a history of psychosis, hallucinations,
multiple admissions to the VA hospital and was frequently noncompliant
with medication regimens prescribed by physciains treating his
pain." Leveque allegedly "did not request complete
medical records, failed to conduct a mental health history, and
did not consult with his care providers."
Bayer notes, "Sometimes
'noncompliance is due to adverse effects, inability to pay, miscommunication
or the underlying illness. Noncompliance should not be pejorative."
And "Often, patients do not want consultants to share information
with other providers and that is within the patient's right to
privacy Dr. Leveque did not jeopardize the health and safety
of this patient by signing application to remove criminal penalties
for something with a brachial plexus injury who reported good
pain relief from therapeutic cannabis. It is also difficult to
understand why treating pain and decriminalizing or 'medicalizing'
anyone for his/her medicine -even if they have a history of substance
abuse- is endangering that patient. Patients should never be
prohibited from receiving adequate pain and symptom control One
might interpret a patient reporting success for three years before
signing an application as good evidence of ability to tolerate
cannabis It is very important to realize that nearly all of Dr.
Leveque's signatures on application forms are for patients who
have reported a history of success with medical cannabis."
Patient C presented "with
complaints of chronic pain, a history of marijuana use, and adverse
consequences associated with that use, to include prison time
sentences for drug related offenses. Patient C said he used marijuana
three to four times per day for four years. Patient C's primary
physician contacted licensee [Leveque] to inform him that this
patient was not an appropriate candidate for medical marijuana.
Nevertheless, Licensee conducted an inadequate history and physical
examination, failed to establish a diagnosis or discuss treatment
alternatives, risks or benefits, and signed the Attending Physician
Statement form attesting that 'Cannabis gives best relief.'"
Bayer responded, "Dr.
Leveque reports the patient has painful spine disease and hepatitis
C. He has used regularly for four years and reports success with
controlling his pain. It is unethical if prison time related
to our prohibitionist politics should determine clinical therapeutics.
It is not uncommon that physicians disagree on therapy and patient's
doctor is certainly free to call and talk to the patient as to
why marijuana is a bad idea. Ultimately it should be the patient's
decision as to which doctor's advice s/he chooses Many patients
who have seen Dr. Leveque feel they get a good history and physical
exam -much more than they get from other doctors."
Patient D, a 19-year-old male,
"presented with complaints of chronic pain and nausea and
a history of using marijuana six times a day for four years as
well as using stolen pharmaceutical opiates and LSD," according
to the Board. "Patient D's history included a pattern of
violent outbursts that caused his mother and sister, for their
own safety, to leave the house where they resided. Licensee disregarded
the patient's history of possible substance abuse or dependence,
failed to conduct an adequate examination, consider treatment
alternatives or establish a diagnosis and signed the Attending
Physician Statement form attesting that 'Cannabis gives best
relief.' Licensee failed to follow this patient. Patient D's
mother subsequently observed that Patient D's pattern of behavior
was to smoke marijuana from the time he awoke in the morning
until he went to be at night. Patient D was ultimately hospitalized
for seizures that may have been related to his use of marijuana."
According to Bayer, "Dr.
Leveque reports the patient's mother brought him in for severe
pain from two back injuries. He had used cannabis for pain for
four years and tolerated it. Severe pain qualified as the debilitating
condition Although cannabis can cause anxiety or even panic attacks,
this is usually in new users involved in anxiety-provoking circumstances.
Cannabis is also reported to help many persons with chronic epilepsy
in case reports These are usually people who have tried everything
else Although it may be possible in rare circumstances for THC
to contribute to seizures it is not a high probability.
Patient E "presented with
complaints of chronic back pain and migraines. Licensee failed
to conduct an adequate history or physical examination, disregarded
his history of using marijuana two to three times a day for five
years, or the patient's felony conviction of manufacturing and
delivering marijuana as possible substance abuse or dependence,
failed to consider treatment alternatives, and failed to establish
a diagnosis. Licensee authorized marijuana for this patient by
signing the Attending Physician Statement form, 'Cannabis gives
best relief.'"
Bayer counters that Leveque
did not ignore the fact that Patient E had used cannabis successfully
for five years. "As discussed earlier, some think it is
unethical that our prohibitionist politics should determine whether
or not a patient is treated for pain. A diagnosis of substance
abuse requires more than a felony drug charge. And even patients
with substance abuse need to have pain treated."
Patient F had been injured
in an auto accident and also presented with irritable bowel syndrome
and nausea. "Patient F reported a history of smoking marijuana
for or five times a day for 15 years," according to the
Board. Leveque "failed to conduct an adequate history or
physical examination, disregarded his history of extensive marijuana
use as evidence of possible substance abuse or dependence, failed
to consider treatment alternatives, and failed to establish a
diagnosis. Licensee authorized marijuana for this patient by
signing the Attending Physician Statement form, writing 'Cannabis
gives best relief.'"
As noted by Bayer, Leveque
authorized cannabis use for chronic severe pain stemming from
the auto accident. "Again, the 15 years' use may relate
to therapeutic success rather than describe evidence for abuse."
Bayer concludes: "In summary,
there are disagreements between Dr. Leveque and the BME. In my
opinion, Dr. Leveque does not represent a danger to patients
for whom he signs an application form. Nearly everyone who sees
Dr. Leveque is a regular user of cannabis who has found therapeutic
success managing severe pain or another debilitating illness.
They have used cannabis a long time and tolerate it. They are
pre-screened to make sure they have a qualifying condition and
records to document this Totally removing Dr. Leveque's license
alleging he is a danger to Oregonians based on these cases seems
more like anti-medical marijuana politics than science-based
medical therapeutics."
Leveque is prepared to fight
the Board to the end. He was a combat infantryman in World War
Two, a forward scout. "I walked most of the way under fire
from Luxembourg almost to Dresden. Under fire on a daily basis.
I spent more time on the point than anybody else in my battalion
and more time on the observation post than anybody except my
own six guys. I don't have any idea how I got out of that alive
I couldn't get a commission because I didn't have a trigger finger.
[The tips of several fingers on Leveque's right hand were severed
in a childhood accident; the index finger was damaged the worst.]
You couldn't be an officer if you didn't have a trigger finger,
but you could be rifleman. That I couldn't understand, and still
don't I guess I survived because I have good reflexes and I'm
not afraid to dive in the dirt."
Leveque has self-published
a memoir, "Gen. Patton's Dogface Soldier: WWII >From
a Foxhole." (To order, send $20 to him at po box 348, Molalla,
OR 97038.) He's proud of a call he got from high-ranking Catholic
priest who said, "Somebody just gave me your book. I'm a
combat infantryman myself. And you got it right."
Leveque has signed applications
for two other Catholic priests. "One was a green beret,
one was a navy seal," he says. "Both of them had been
using marijuana for years and wanted to be legal. Ninety-nine
percent of the people I interview have been using it on their
own for some time. The record so far is 55 years. Obviously they
get benefit or they wouldn't bother with it. Wouldn't pay 300
bucks to keep using it -150 to the doctor, 150 to the state.
The line I hear over and again is, 'Marijuana works better than
any prescription I've been given.'"
Unsolicited
Plug
The approximately 100 cannabis
dispensaries now operating in California fall into two broad
categories: those who view their customers strictly as customers,
and those who relate to them as potential participants in a political
movement or a clinical trial. It's not merely a matter of semantics
or image -everybody calls their customers "patients,"
and anybody can dub themselves "compassionate" and
tack up a marijuana leaf imposed on a red cross. Cannabis dispensaries
that merely give lip-service to Dennis Peron's radical ideals
have something in common with the early Christian churches after
Jesus was offed and his disciples began the long segue from the
sermon on the mount to supremacy in the real estate market.
One club proprietor with a
sense of political responsibility is Martin O'Brien, founder
of the Berkeley Patients Care Collective on Telegraph Avenue.
Over the years O'Brien has attended many a meeting and rally
and trial, some of which he recorded on video. Now he has incorporated
his high-quality footage -and more, from TV news sources- into
a 30-minute documentary called "Regarding Medical Marijuana,"
produced in association with Americans for Safe Access. It's
available free on-line at http://www.medicalmarijuanainfo.com/.
The trouble is, there are too
many snippets and no unifying framework, so the movie is way
too choppy for this old print journalist. It's said that people
raised on MTV are accustomed to absorbing information in quick
little bites; but not every story can be told in a snappy couple
of sentences. I recommend O'Brien's debut documentary as a kind
of video scrapbook, a way for people who have followed their
exploits from afar to see close-ups of Dennis and Tod Mikuriya
and Phil Denney and Terence Hallinan and Valerie and Mike Corral
and Mike Alcalay and Ed Rosenthal and Steph Sherer and Don Duncan
and other greats and near greats of the medical marijuana movement
in California.
Got a product you want O'Shaughnessy's
readers to know about? Please send to pob 9143 Berkeley CA 94709
or journal@ccrmg
Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org
Weekend
Edition Features for October 16 / 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
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